Everton defender Jake O'Brien says Jordan Pickford apologised to his team-mates at the Emirates Stadium
Jordan Pickford was at fault for Arsenal's first goal
Jordan Pickford was at fault for Arsenal's first goal(Image: Offside via Getty Images)
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Jake O’Brien has revealed that Jordan Pickford has apologised to his Everton team-mates for his mistake that gave Arsenal their breakthrough goal at the Emirates Stadium.
For most of the Saturday evening fixture, David Moyes’ men frustrated the Premier League leaders and it looked as if they’d be retuning from north London with a hard-earned point.
But with 89 minutes on the clock, Pickford flapped at Max Dowman’s cross, enabling fellow substitute Viktor Gyokeres to fire home the rebound from close range.
Then, deep into stoppage time as the Blues sought an equaliser from a corner kick, Pickford decided to go forward and join the attack only for the Gunners to catch them on the break and double their lead as Dowman put the ball into an empty net.
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The goal ensured that the 16-year-old took former Everton striker James Vaughan’s record that had stood for almost 21 years as the youngest goalscorer in Premier League history.
O’Brien said: “Jordan has come in and apologised but he has kept us in a lot of games. We’ll put it behind us and it’s not something he does very often, but also he’s made some really good saves, so I’m not sure anyone can say anything because he’s been amazing for us.
“We’re disappointed as we defended well through the match but in games like this it’s small margins that have seen us lose. We defended well until the final moments and just got caught out at the end while for the second goal, we were just chasing the game, searching for an equaliser.”
The Republic of Ireland international added: “I think there’s a sense of knowing that we can come to teams like this and go toe-to-toe with them. It shows how far we’ve come as a team and as a club.
“We had a lot of chances during the game and on another day, if one of those had gone in it could have been a different type of match.
“Not just tonight, we’ve shown many times that we can go toe-to-toe with these teams now. We held out for so long, but we put it behind us as there are still plenty of games to go and points to play for.”
Everton went into the game without their first-choice centre-back pairing of James Tarkowski and Jarrad Branthwaite, but Moyes was tight-lipped when asked about why they were missing.
Branthwaite, who missed eight months of the season through a hamstring injury, did not travel with Everton for their training trip to Portugal in between the Burnley and Arsenal fixtures, but Tarkowski, who has been skippering the side for most of this term in the absence on the pitch of club captain Seamus Coleman, had been ever-present up until the trip to the Emirates Stadium.
Their respective absences ensured that O’Brien was paired with Michael Keane at centre-back.
Asked after the game when he’d found out about this, the 24-year-old said: “Just yesterday. We set up all week, and we know things can change and the system can change and it did, but we were all set up for whatever happens.
“I thought we were tactically good and we defended well as a team. Like I said, I think it was just a small margin of error that cost us.
“Michael and I have played together before and it’s worked. Whoever is playing, we know each other and we’ve been alongside each other in training for a long time now.”